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Hiya!
It’s been a lifelong dream (well, not really, it’s been an idea for three years now) to make the Mother franchise into films. It’s (practically) the only reason I want to become a film director! I feel these games are works of art, and deserve WAY MORE attention and credit than they’re given. Not only are they unique and quirky-perky, but they’ve also touched the hearts of fans alike. They’ve definitely had an impact on my life, and have helped mold me into the person I am today.

WITH THAT BEING SAID, adapting these games into films will be a LOT of work. Wouldn’t you agree?

I’ve been browsing the forums for the last couple of days to gather information, primarily information about MOTHER‘s prologue. MOTHER’s introduction prologue left a lot of questions unanswered, like:

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What was that huge shadow that caused George and Maria to disappear so suddenly?

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Was Maria killed or is she still alive?

WELL, I’m hoping the layout I’m working on answers those questions AND MORE.
With help from MULTIPLE Starmen.net users, I’ve accumulated an evergrowing list of information and context that’ll BLOW YOU AWAY (I will, of course, credit the users I obtained the information from. :]).

I’m currently in twelfth grade and haven’t really pursued my interest in the film industry. I know it’s what I want to go to college for, but at the same time I know going to an arts college doesn’t necessarily ensure success. I figured, “why not start here”?
Once I finish a screenplay for a film adaptation of MOTHER, I want to film a trailer and spread the word. In order to accomplish these goals, however, I’m going to need help. You may be asking yourselves "well, who tha heck’s gonna help ya’?, and the answer to that question is YOU. Yes, YOU, fellow fans of the Mother franchise.

So, with that being said, let’s get to it!

It seems to me that you have a great perception of the events of the game.
The idea of starting the script off with George and Maria’s abduction instead of the prologue that appears within the game is a novel one. However, I would suggest making the source of their disappearance vague, just like in the original prologue to the game. Explicitly showing that aliens were responsible for their vanishing should probably be saved for later so the presence of aliens is more of a “twist” later on.

You can make the collection of the melodies important to the progression of the plot by having pieces of George, Maria, and Giygas’s backstory appearing as a shattered memory each time Ninten collects one. That way, Giygas’s presence as a whole, and the conclusion of George and Maria’s story, happens less suddenly. You may recall in the original game, there was no word of Giygas until the last few minutes of the game. This script is an opportunity to help alleviate that.

Another difficulty of adapting an RPG game to written prose is decided how and to what capacity you want action sequences to happen within your story. Naturally, since you’re writing this as a script, fighting will certainly not occur as often as within the actual game. A question to ask yourself before writing an action sequence is will this sequence be meaningful to the story? Don’t have Ninten and his buddies fight enemies for the sake of fighting.

You could use an action sequence to provide a funny moment, such as him facing a hippie.
You could use an action sequence to display the strengths of the protagonist and his friends.
Or perhaps when they’re obtaining something important to the story, such as the battle against the Dragon in Magicant.

Of course, you can take your fullest creative liberties with these. Just make sure battles within your script aren’t becoming repetitive and meaningless!

You know, that’s a very good question, and one that I can’t seem to come up with any ideas for. How many of Ninten’s PSI techniques are you planning on including? If you’re going to slice down his abilities to maybe five or six techniques, you can have great fanfare every time he learns a new one. However, if he will learn several abilities, then it may be necessary for his learning processes to be streamlined and over quickly, as to not repeat scenes twenty times or so.

You seem really committed to this project, and that is great to see! You have already got a sturdy base to work off.

Magicant has a lot of potential to be used for exposition purposes, considering that it was born of Maria’s consciousness. In the same vein as Ness’s Magicant, it can be used to reveal information that Queen Mary has forgotten. Perhaps Ninten could find some clues as to the truth scattered around Magicant. This can also, perhaps, help give Ninten a genuine reason to seek out the Melodies.

The first three Melodies can be attributed to coincidences because they are obtained through random deeds of goodwill (stopping the poltergeist attack, returning to baby canary to Laura, dealing with the problem in the zoo), and it is after the first three that Ninten first visits Magicant in-game, at which point he could start actively hunting down the Melodies.

The MOTHER manual implies that Ana has been calling out to Ninten since the start of his adventure — you can incorporate this into his incentive, too.

As for the PSI learning process, I have always felt that MOTHER is the game where PSI is treated as the most traditionally mysterious. In MOTHER, the characters are not chosen ones, but just a small group trying to survive, a point that the futility of power near the end of the game drives in. I think that instead of separately bringing attention to every new ability Ninten or Ana learn — there are a lot — you could simply have them be used in battle without making it seem like much of a big deal.

For example, you do not need to divide Lifeup into “Lifeup Alpha”, “Lifeup Beta”, “Lifeup Omega” and so on, and have each of them commented on. Instead, you could simply treat it as “Lifeup”. Display their progress with Lifeup in how it gradually becomes stronger over time, and even gains the ability to heal multiple allies at once as they become better at it. This alone will lower the number of instances in which they develop new PSI abilities, and will also deal with strange mechanics such as Healing’s very selective effect depending on its levels.

After all, listing their PSI abilities with strict effects, PP cost and the like is a very scientific, clinical perspective — Ninten and Ana are twelve-year-olds, and are unlikely to closely scrutinize each ability. They are unlikely to analyze say, Lifeup beyond “this heals people” and PK Fire beyond “this burns stuff”.

They are similarly unlikely to say, “This is PK Thunder Alpha, which deals electrical damage, and this is PK Thunder Beta, because it deals more electrical damage than PK Thunder Alpha”. Instead, they are more likely to just realize that their PSI is getting stronger over time and use.

As an aside, it is not confirmed or implied in MOTHER that George specifically stole PSI information. Giygas just refers to it as “vital information” and makes no reference to PSI. All Encyclopedia MOTHER tells us on the matter is that George studies PSI at some point after returning to Earth.

It is, in fact, probably more likely that he stole alien technology, considering that George, who had not (as far as we know) particularly been known for his scientific ability, was able to create an underwater base and a robot like EVE.

Of course, this is just a clarification — George stealing PSI information is still a route you could take.

All in all, good luck with this project!

I’ve compiled a list of information for the development/establishment of Ninten’s character. I may or may not exclude a few details as I come up with more ideas. I want a lot of help with ideas too. I want to establish traits that make him seem more ‘human’. I want the main characters to be relatable, I want them to feel real.

Feel free to suggest an idea or two.

I had to make a few changes to Ninten’s character (age) to suit the story better from a film standpoint. Ninten and co’s ages are only a little over ten in the video game, but I feel like working with child actors would be a slight hassle. They’re usually not that great when it comes to acting (some of you may disagree and point fingers towards Stranger Things, but there are multiple other examples that solidify my statement, including some of the voice actors in both dubs of Akira).

If anything I’ll probably continue to update/re-edit this reply with character profiles for Ana and Lloid. I’ll also be adding more information to the Ninten character profile as soon as I come up with new ideas/acquire new information from separate sources. I’ll try refraining from making a new reply for each character for the sake of avoiding bumps, so stay tuned!

Ayy, here’s another character profile. this one’s for Teddy. I really wanted to expand upon his story and further develop his character. Teddy’s barely even developed before he leaves your party in MOTHER; the most we know about him is that his parents died on Mt. Itoi.

If I make this franchise into films, I want to make each game into its own trilogy, or at the very least two films for each game. I don’t feel like I can actually fit everything into one without making it feel rushed.

I’ll admit after reading over what I typed yesterday some of it is a little needlessly dark and “edgy”, so I’ll try re-editing some of it. I made a up a few details as I went along with typing everything, so if anything seems like a bad idea feel free to say so.

I honestly want to make Teddy’s character at least slightly tragic. I want his denial and cockiness to be his downfall at the end of the story.

Most importantly, I want Teddy’s character to die towards the end of the script, giving Ninten and his friends more of a reason to hate Giegue and his army. MOTHER allowed Teddy to live, giving each main character a happy ending, and although that’s pretty nice, I want Ninten’s encounter with Giegue to be more than a need to save the human race.

change it
i suggest naming him Ken

kinda-sorta-wanna kill off Teddy in the script and make Ninten’s battle with Giygoogiegoogiwhatever for vengeance, but it’d be ironic of Ninten to develop a hatred for Giygas and then sing a beautiful song to him.

“you murdered my friend! prepare to die!!”
…
…
“take a meloOOODDYYYY”

I think it could work if executed correctly but idk

Ostricho:

Not a bad idea. Instead of making Ninten’s focus after Teddy’s death being one of vengeance and fury, it could rather be one of conviction and finality. Teddy’s death would be the first truly grave happening to occur during Ninten’s quest. Instead of having Ninten being like, “Giygas must pay with blood,” just shift that to “Things are going to get even worse if I don’t make my move now. I know what I must do.”

Glad to see you back here again, by the way.

glad to be back.
i wish i could work more on this, but life’s beginning to catch up to me.

UPDATE:

it’s been almost an entire year since I’ve posted, but a friend and I are making steady progress towards making this a reality. a shift has been made, one that I think will be more beneficial to the project as a whole. we plan to write multiple scripts, making our MOTHER films an episodic series. i like the idea of filming a feature length trilogy for each game, but something more along the lines of a web series will help us work more efficiently, especially since we’re both amateurs. here’s a list of changes we’ve made or plan to make involving the plot:

-MOTHER will take place in the early 2000s to avoid technological inconsistencies. i’d love to have it take place in the eighties, but that means spending boat loads of money we don’t have on props like vehicles, and the locations we’ve chosen to shoot in are very modern.

- Ninten, Ana, Lloyd, etc. will all be older than their in-game counterparts. working with child actors can be nightmarish, and working with older, competent actors ensures a more stable project.

- as ostricho suggested, we’re scrapping the introductory sequence detailing George and Maria’s backstories in favor of a text crawl similar to the beginning of the actual game. their stories will be progressively revealed throughout the span of the story. each time Ninten collects a new melody, part of their backstory will be revealed via flashback.

we plan to go location scouting soon. living in the middle of North Carolina gives us so many locations opportunities. we already have ideas for both podunk and mt. itoi, and are in the process of searching for more locations.

if anyone is at all interested in helping write or produce assets, shoot me a PM.
thank you for sticking with us as we sluggishly make progress. MOTHER as a franchise is something i am intensely passionate about, and i will make adapt it to film in some way or another, no matter what it takes.

Franklin Badger:

If you’re in North Carolina you should consider hunting down Stephen Georg for a cameo appearance. Or is he in South Carolina?

I’d love that, but Stephen is sadly from SC.

Well, well. Look’s like I’m not the only person with this day-dream. This certainly sounds like a interesting project, firstly can I see the script so far? Secondly, instead of a text crawl, the prologue should be acted out. Perhaps in a similar manner to how Kenisu3000 handled it

here are screen captures of the script as it is up to this point. i’m using celtx to write, and i don’t have a paid subscription, so i am slightly limited, but i don’t consider that something i need to feel worry about. once i’m further into the writing process i may start a discord server for the project for anyone interested in helping brainstorm or write.

i’ve mentioned this in previous posts and i’ll mention it again: anyone who is at all interested in helping write or create visual assets once we get to that point in production is more than welcome, and should reach out to me via pm. i can’t predict when we’ll start shooting; my current concerns are finishing scripts for the first two episodes, gathering/allocating a budget, and casting actors, but once we get to that point you can count on me giving you guys an update.

the possibility of starting a new thread once work on video has begun is also being considered. this means discussions and updates related to the writing process will remain here, while updates regarding shooting and editing video will be posted to that separate thread. this will help me stay organized, and will attract users from different forums who are interested in discussing specific aspects of the production critically.

words cannot express how excited i am to see this project take off. our journey to completion may be bumpy and arduous, but i believe with the help of you guys, we can accomplish anything through patience and hard work.

cheers!

I love it! You’ve done a great job envisioning how this will all go together, I think.